Bought a used KTM 690 and the first time I went to loosen the front axle nut, it was not even close to hand tight. I was surprised it hadn't fallen off already.
Harley ultra classic Electra glide- had new rear tire put on right before a 1300 mile round trip to Sturgis. Got home and went to check over the bike. Belt way too loose…. Rear axle nuts completely loose(eclips kept nut from falling off) Yeah my pre trips are much more thorough now especially after having a shop touch my stuff. Dumbest I’ve felt in a long time.
The mechanic I brought my bike to for the last mandatory general inspection has put my front tire on backwards. I've been riding around for 2 years without noticing it. For the next inspection I used a checklist and found that out. Got some tire irons, weights and a balancing stand to put it on the right way. I guess if you want something done right, you gotta do it yourself. Please do more maintenance videos if you want to. Really enjoyed this one, and it's an important topic!
Never found anything particularly nasty on my bikes. While changing wheels on a fwd car (not mine) one of the nuts, that is supposed to keep the driveshafts from falling out of the wheel hubs, fell off as I pulled the wheel 😵 Guy should probably have bought a lottery ticket that day.
Not basic maintenance, but I bought a used bandit 1200s and the previous owner removed the air cleaner box for pods and rejetted the carb. Bike ran like crap and burned through its fuel. Took a few months to figure out since it was all new to me, now it runs beautifully and needs all the other attention like breaks and tire maintenance.
Hey Spite, you where wondering if we liked this kind of free style video right? I like it, but it would have been very rewarding to see your reaction to the maintained bike with fresh fluids and brake pads. I always find that moment a very rewarding part for all the hard work and missed that moment in the video! But its no big deal, would still watch without it. Thanks for reading.
How timely, I was just about to head out to the garage and change my brake fluid. Now I can procrastinate and watch you do it for 20 more mins. Good stuff.
Spite, a great tip my dad taught me as a youth when starting bolts is to actually run them backwards until you feel it drop (when the threads just want to start) and then run them on in. It has been super handy over the years and I’ve never cross threaded anything using this method.
To your point,I have bought 10 different motorcycles. Not a single one had even close to the right amount of air. Most had dangerously low levels of air.
Thanks SPITE for this awesome video! This is the stuff, yammie would never post but is VERY IMPORTANT. I love this kind of content and will watch every minute of it! Tip for the rear breakpads: Just put a towel on the chain and clip it with clothing clips (so it acts like a barrier between your hand and the chain)
I like it. Anything you can do to encourage people to do their own routine maintenance is a good thing. To me makes the motorcycling experience that much better!
These types of video's are great. It's like sitting around in the garage watching a mate fix his bike while I sit there & drink his beer, only it's my beer I'm drinking & I can't point out what he did wrong after he spent an hour trying to do it. It's also given me some motivation to do a couple of things on my bike that I've been putting off, like an oil & filter change, new brake pads, brake fluid bleed, replacing the side stand, replacing the fork oil & seals, replacing the sprocket & chain, replacing the air filter, replacing the coolant fluid & installing the brackets for my panniers. Oh, and I need to do the fork oil & seals and replace the clutch on my other bike. On second thoughts I hate these video's because they remind me of how much I have to do to my bikes.
@@chrishart8548 The fork seal has just started to go on one of the stanchions & the pads are only being replaced because I'm bleeding the brakes & want new pads as a reference point when I'm refilling the fluid. I'm actually just waiting for the parts for the other bike to fix it first. My bikes are my only form of transport, so i can only have one of them off the road at a time.
The wrenching stuff is fun. Havent really found anything weird or out of the ordinary yet but I sure hope so with a brand new bike. That fluid was insane
Loved the video Spite! Would totally be down to see some more of this “loose” “Freeform” content. I just absolutely love how all of your videos are pieced together and laid out.
Glad to see this video went exactly the same as every one of my own maintenance sessions. Oil change was perfunctory, brake job made me question my sanity and every life choice up until that moment, and by the end of it all at least one thing was no longer working the way it did when I started.
I liked the honesty of your video. Some edit out everything except the perfect job. They have perfect tool for everything and never make a mistake or have melt down because manufacturer has made their life miserable due to some design stupidity. What I can relate to is having to run to store to buy some metric allen key I know I have, but can't find or talking to inanimate objects because I have to remove 7 bolts to take a side panel off off my quad. Thanks for the video!
nothing like a parking garage service. Word to the wise, put a tie wrap on the eyes on the circlip that's on the rear wheel axle nut. those have a tendency to magically disappear.....
I thought this was a very good effort on your part Spite. Good to see everyday maintenance tasks being done by a ''shady tree'' mechanic. Kind of reminded me of a Shadetree Surgeon video. Thanks
I didn't see if you did it, but two things I would change is, place down a towl over your paint/handlebars to protect the paint from the brake fluid. Also I would have sucked most of the bad fluid first, so it doesn't have to go through the system.
I've never seen brake fluid like that in my 40 odd years of wrenching on my own vehicles. What's more impressive is the degree to which your wrenching skills have improved over the years - looking very proficient! With brake fluid like that I would take a look at the fork oil also.
@@spitescorner Hey Spite, you where wondering if we liked this kind of free style video right? I like it, but it would have been very rewarding to see your reaction to the maintained bike with fresh fluids and brake pads. I always find that moment a very rewarding part for all the hard work and missed that moment in the video! But its no big deal, would still watch without it. Thanks for reading.
a Protip, if you have your bleeder cup higher than the bleeder valve on the brake, you can usually leave it open and just cycle the lever, it will usually push about 90 percent through the line and only suck back about 10 percent.
Great video Spite! This is exactly how every maintenance job goes for me - it was like watching myself except you were in much better humor and no cursing.
LOL that 2 hole thing was how old folks had to drink beer. V8 used to come in huge cans. Juice too. Can openers had a little triangle thing on the end just for opening that kind of stuff. Brake honey? Brake marmalade.. na not citrus... Ducati brake jam? ...
Way more fun to watch other people struggle than to do it yourself but it probably motivated a few slackers to do theirs which is always good. Spite out here casually saving lives.
After flushing the rear system, put the cap back on the bottle (especially in Southern states) while prepping the front. Brake fluid is ultra hydrophilic 🤙🏼
Thank you for making me feel normal. Thought it was just me when something won’t go back where it belongs when it came off so easily! Great video and reminder to do ALL THINGS motorcycle not just the riding.
Awesome video! Patreon notification and link works... was wrenching on my bike yesterday, everyone should work on their bike! Just be careful not to void any warranty.
be cool if you had a "playlist" of videos, each one focussing on a differnt aspect of maintenance. chain maintenance, brake bleeding, etc. it could be like an online how to guide .
Way to keep it real. This is how it usually goes. And then you forget and assume it will be trouble-free the next time - because why shouldn't it be? The important thing is to just do it - easy or not.
As a Hyper 950 owner, would highly recommend when you come off the road to check the sump screen, replace gaskets and torque the filter and drain. It sounds snooty, Ducatis are picky about torque values. However, this all serves as a great road warrior method when you don't have the garage to setup in. Same for brake fluid, I pull out as much old as I can rather than flushing it through the ABS manifold.
Couple things I would recommend addressing- Clean the rotors with pad change. At least brake cleaner, but Scotchbrite pad to remove old pad glazing is best. Second would be to bed the new pads to rotors. They need a heat cycle sequence to properly seat and lay new pad material on the rotor.
Strong agree on brakes - I do it every spring personally - just bleed through a bunch of new fluid. It's REALLY easy, and if you're doing it anally or twice a year it doesn't matter if you're not changing 100% of the fluid, you'll keep cycling through it and keep it fresh. More importantly you're actually looking at it frequently so you're not going to be surprised, you'll catch problems early.
Why? Unless you are abusing your brakes. Brake fluid is not like oil. It doesn't just wear out. It would only need replacing if the fluid got so hot it boiled out of the master cylinder for some odd reason. I had a Toyota Corolla that I put 376,000 miles on and not once did I do a brake fluid change. Not a single time, and the brakes never once failed me.
@@spartanx169x it degrades over time. Yeah, you can run it for years and it won't fail abruptly but there's a noticeable change of brake feel as it does so. It picks up substantial heat and cooks. The heat buildup tends to be a lot more extreme as you've basically just got the small volume in the front absorbing heat from more rapid braking all on one tire. Motorcycle maintenance schedules typically show 2 - 4 years for fluid, but new fluid gives better brake feel and response from the front tire under braking, and over-changing it helps prevent potential problems such as gradual water ingress over time. After all, did you not see the brake fluid in the front reservoir of his Ducati? It was goopy. That's BAD. Brake failure may be unlikely, but even just poor performance when you need to rely on them could mean a lengthy hospital stay... Or death. Or you can just properly maintain your motorcycle. You ABSOLUTELY should have changed your Corollas brake fluid over that distance, but the demands on a Corolla's brakes or generally not remotely like those of a motorcycle's brakes, and more importantly the consequences of inadequate braking is WAY less severe in the car. Toyota recommends every 48 months you replace brake fluid. Your failure to properly maintain your Corolla is not a good guide to how you should treat a motorcycle.
Something I did to mine that you might consider: I wired my USB through a relay tied to the ACC circuit, then ran a USB cable directly to the GPS tracker so that I never have to take the thing out to charge it. Unfortunately, when I did that I found out that I didn't ride the bike quite enough to keep it charged (low amperage charger was likely the actual problem) so I swapped the cables around and tied it into constant 12v. As long as I ride it at least every 3 or 4 days it's good, and I'm running a lithium battery with low voltage cutoff just in case I forget. Haven't even looked at my tracker in several months.
I am restoring an old 1990 FZR600. When I opened the front brake res the fluid was like a gel. More like toothpaste. I was able to clean the master cylinder and calipers, but decided to replace the lines.
Thank you for this informative video. I think you need to ask a friend to use their shop space, though. It looks like you are the mall, or airport. No bench, no stool. I felt for you. 😊
Love seeing videos like this, keep it up Spite! Maybe next time though don't show where you're putting your tracker if you want to be sure it'll do its job ;)
@Matt Waychoff I think they just don't want to give way the good hiding places. There are usually many. On most bikes it could probably be hidden in the air box.
rather than turning a bolt with your hands, you can turn the bolt with a tool in reverse while applying pressure till you hear a click, the click is the bolt backing out from reversing it, and once you've passed the opening the bolt smacks the threads making a click. i've been doing this for years, its never failed me, even works or other random things like the hydraulic dust caps and overboard drain plugs on the aircraft i work on. unscrew before screwing on, never cross thread again
when doing pads for the front, you gotta put them in dont tighten the caliper yet rotate the wheel then clamp down on the front brake making sure your pads are aligned correctly then go ahead and tighten the calipers
Yea… I have a list of maintenance I need to get done before the weather really starts getting nice where I’m at. Brake bleed, coolant flush, oil change, chain cleaned and lubed, and then it needs a good wash and polish
On the Ducati rear caliper, you can get a air bubble that will go to the high point. It just happens that they like to put the bleeder screw on the bottom. On a 748/916/996, you can take the caliper off the bracket and flip it to the top of the rotor to bleed with the bleeder at the high point and still give the pads something to press against. I don't know if they gave you enough brake line on the Hyper to flip it.
I can super reccomend getting a pack of latex gloves from your local parts shop, for working on your bike, my dad taught me to always have a box in my car and by my toolset so whenever i have to dip my hands into the dirty bits, i get to dodge the huge mess i make of myself. Love the video though, i can just feel the raw human emotzioné!
BTW the reason the brake fluid was goo is its dot4 and its hygroscopic wich absorbs moisture and that turns into a gel over time...great vid and nice to finally meet you at the FA campout...your doing great things with your channel keep it up bro...
The reason 8t was so easy and you didn’t need to remove the calipers was because the pads you took out were almost new.,ie just as thick. Had they been really warn, you would need to compress the caliper to fit in The new, thicker pads.
You actually have to take calipers off on most bikes. These Brembo 4.34 are one of the very few that allow you to change the pads without taking them completely off.
This is just what I needed. I'm about to do my oil and brakes for the first time this summer. I'll RU-vid my specific bike but this was a great intro. I plan to buy a quadlock but also want to install a USB charger but I'm not sure about how to hide all the wiring
These maintenance videos should be part of product reviews. Would totally set your channel apart from other RU-vidrs. For those of us who want to do self maintenance, seeing you figuring out Ducati brakes should factor into the buying decision. Anyone can tell us what it’s like to ride, or can read spec sheets. But telling us if it’s easy or hard to work on will go a long way.
I guess it's basic maintenance, but recently picked up an 2015 FZ1 from the dealer I work at. I figured cause I worked there they would take care of me. Make sure the bike was ready before I took it home. Cause the last thing you want is someone talking to customers saying "Hey check your bike before you take it home. Make sure the fluids changed and all the nuts are there." On the ride home I was like "hmm the rear brake seem squishy." That's cause the fluid was under the low level. It was also running hot cause only half full of coolant. (At least they tried to replace it. It was new.) Then when I brought it up to the service manager I got some BS like "Oh well. It was cold when they did the change and it compresses when it's cold." Which it does(a little, not enough to make it go from high to low), but it wasn't cold when I checked it and i'm not stupid. I know what old brake fluid looks like.
My speed triple was a pain in the ass to get the rear caliper off too. Single sided swingarms are like that some times. Get yourself some rubber gloves.
I really enjoyed seeing the basic maintenance in first person. I only have two addendums: 1. Did you replace the crush gasket on the oil drain plug? It seems like this would be an important step. It would suck to have a leaky plug and have to redo the oil changing process. You can buy a crush washer assortment for $7 at Harbor Freight. 2. What are your reasons for pre-filling the oil filter? There seems to be two camps of people- those that pre-fill and those who do not. Do you pre-fill the filters on all of your bikes, or do you specifically look for what the manufacturer says?
